555 Days Towards Level 9000: Day 3

More importantly, it’s something we as humans strive to do in our Lives. We want to do the right thing.

And we know when we have done the right thing. It’s not a cerebral thing. All the thinking and consideration is all brain-based. The right thing is based in the soul. You know when the right thing is being done because your internal self lights up, lets you know that the proper path is being adhered to.

I’d like to think I was part of doing the right thing today.

This day served as the conclusion to my civil duty as serving as a trial juror. The process lasted a few weeks. We listened to evidence, to experts. Those on trial are presumed innocent until proven guilty. This is the procedure.

The state has to prove the evidence against the accused.

Deliberations. We, the jury, have to do the right thing.

The evidence has to meet all criteria to vote guilty. We talk amongst ourselves. Debate happens, of course: cerebral, cerebral, cerebral. What if, what if, what if.

But ultimately, Not Guilty.

As the foreperson read the decisions aloud, I paid close attention to the accused. With each “Not guilty,” the first accused cried. And each on trial sobbed, in their own way, with the verdict read.

Tears of joy? Of relief? Impossible to say which.

After we were dismissed, one of those on trial found one of us jurors on Facebook and sent a quick message, which I paraphrase:

“Thank you all for saving my life,” he wrote, “and the lives of my friends.”